A Matter Of Time

A MATTER OF TIME

w/a Sharon Locke

(nom de guerre)

(c) Saturday, February 20, 2016

The dining hall erupted in jeers when young Master Shiskey entered through the main doors at five past noon to sit for lunch. He was late. He's always late. And everyone was kept waiting to start.

"Now that Master Shiskey has seen fit to grace us with his untimely presence we may begin. Master Dudley will you lead us in the saying of grace this after-noon," the headmaster said with emphasis on the first two syllables of afternoon.

Most of Shiskey's house mates missed that last quip as they were preoccupied sneering at Shiskey taking his seat among them.

"What's your excuse this time, shish-kebob," Master James whispered loud enough for the other boys around him to hear.

Everyone in earshot smirked with heads down to avoid eye contact with the headmaster.

The next morning, Shiskey found his pocket watch with its crystal face cracked. The watch was in his vest pocket where he had left it the night before. He could still see the watch was telling time. In fact, he noted he arrived on time to breakfast, lunch, and dinner and every other appointment that day.

Shiskey spent the next day observing the comings and goings of his peers. One student was always entering the room late with his eyes darting from making contact with his.  This, finally, prompted Shiskey to speak with the headmaster. That someone had stolen his school-issued pocket watch, he declared, without mentioning the broken one he kept concealed.

Two days after the alleged theft, the headmaster called Master Shiskey's house to his office, all twenty boys.

As each boy filed in and took a seat on wood benches along either side of the room against the walls, the headmaster kept an eye on his pocket watch recording each boys' time of arrival. Master Shiskey was not the last one to enter the room. Five minutes after everyone else, Master James arrived with a stunned look upon his face at everyone else seated and waiting on him. He reached into the pocket of his signature red vest--the color of their house--and pulled out his school-issued pocket watch. It read 1:59 p.m. He looked up somewhat relieved but somewhat perplexed.

"Master Shiskey," the headmaster started, "we are assembled as you requested."

As James moved quickly to take a seat, Shiskey lept to his feet.

"Master James," Shiskey called out, "would you please check under the coat stand for a pen dropped there?"

Still feeling somewhat off, having arrived last, James turned obediently to check. He leaned over from the waist to fan his fingers beneath the stand. In doing so his pocket watch poured out and hit the hardwood floor. He scooped it up quickly and checked the face. Then slid it back into his vest pocket.

"Did the crystal crack?" called out Shiskey to James.

James neglected a response while with one hand he reached under the stand and with the other he held his pocket watch in place. The face of his watch was not broken, but what he found under the stand was a pocket watch whose face was cracked. He stood upright and turned back to face everyone, but he uttered not a word.

"Headmaster, we need new watches. I suspect Master James has a penchant for breaking his in the manner we just witnessed. And mine runs slow, which is why Master James was last to arrive."

All the boys gasped and murmured until Master James broke in. "Are you accusing me of something," James cut back.

Shiskey turned to the headmaster while answering James. "No, I am proving something. I hid that pocket watch under the stand. It is yours. It still tells correct time. The crystal is just cracked. The watch in your pocket you took from me. It is mine. It is slow. It requires constant rewinding, and resetting. I confess I knew that, and so my tardiness is my failure to attend to my watch. But evidently Master James was unaware of this when he swapped his cracked watch for my slow one."

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The headmaster smiled recalling he had witnessed The Very First Case From The Cabinet Of Capers Of Child Constable Shiskey Chateau.

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~725 words